Pilot Error - Film Premiere

Description

Pilot Error, the up to the minute feature film inspired by the true story of a French airliner missing in the Atlantic premieres September 14 and 16 at Elk River Cinema. Talkbacks featuring veteran airline training pilot Paul Kolisch follow the 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. shows.

The film’s trailer is at https://vimeo.com/110034584

Pilot Error explores many of the same questions being asked following the loss of another jet, Malaysia Air 370 in March 2014 and the December 2014 Air Asia crash in the Java Sea. Pilots nationwide have welcomed the film’s nuanced and fair minded look at their profession.

Filmed on location in Wisconsin, Michigan and Paris, the feature stars award winning stage actress Kate Thomsen, making her screen debut, as investigative reporter Nicola Wilson.  She is determined to find out why a jet headed from South America to Paris disappeared in the Atlantic, taking her close friend and 211 other passengers with it. How, Wilson wants to know, can a plane just disappear?

As Nicola digs deeper and deeper into this mystery she puts her job, friends and very livelihood on the line. Even though she knows nothing about aviation, refuses to fly and doesn't speak French, Nicola quickly uncovers astonishing details about the missing flight. Was it preventable? Has it happened before? Could it happen again? And was it PILOT ERROR?

Pilot Error will appear on over 200 screens in America and abroad this year, was cowritten by Rapoport with the feature’s director Joe Anderson.

Costarring Hollywood actors Richard Riehle (“Office Space”)  Robert Cicchini (“Godfather III” and “Waterwalk”),  and Larry Herron (“Modern Family”) the film has been hailed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as a “first class ticket.”

Pilot Error follows up on the success of Rapoport’s first film Waterwalk, which has played at over 200 theaters nationwide. Based on the true story  of a father-son retracing the Marquette/Joliet discovery route of the Mississippi, that film is now available on DVD.

“Our goal is to encourage more hands-on flying and simulator training for airline pilots at a time when the industry is increasingly focused on automation,” the producer explains. “At the screenings we’ll be announcing some very good news about a major advance in weather forecasting technology that will benefit pilots everywhere.”       

Thomsen has distinguished herself on numerous midwestern stages. A winner of a special Irene Ryan Award for her undergraduate work on the Kennedy Center stage, she earned her MFA at the University of California-Irvine. She currently lives in Kalamazoo with her husband Travis, a middle school principal, and their two young children.

Pilot Error is edited by Gene Gamache, who has won many awards for his work on major studio film marketing campaigns and trailers ranging from Forrest Gump, to 12 Years A Slave and Birdman.  He also produced the documentaries Houdini and A Circus Life.  Composer Garth Neustadter won an emmy for his John Muir In The New World score.

Cinematographer David Darling worked with well-known Detroit director of photography Bruce Schermer, who shot most of Roger & Me and was cinematographer on Sundance grand prize winning Chameleon Street.

Pilot Error is based on five years of research and interviews with more than 200 pilots, airline executive, plane manufacturers, regulatory agencies and the team that found missing Air France 447 in the Atlantic.  The film offers audiences an inside look at the fate of pilots unfortunately kept in the dark about failed automation.

“Top airline training pilots speaking at our preview events have been warmly received by audiences trying to understand how, in the most interconnected moment in human history, it’s never been easier to hide the truth,” says Rapoport.

To arrange an interview with Kate Thomsen contact her at katie.thomsen@gmail.com or call 424-634-9950. To arrange an interview with Roger Rapoport call him at 231 720-0930. rogerdrapoport@me.com.

Elk River Cinema is at 570 Freeport Avenue. (763) 441-1234, marcustheatres.com